Lin Zhao

Lin Zhao (1932-1968) was a Chinese political dissident, poet, and writer. A former member of the Chinese Communist Party, she was an idealist who initially supported the party's rise to power, joining an underground communist cell prior to the revolution at age 16, but turned against it after seeing its growing intolerance to free speech and criticism during the "Hundred Flowers" period in 1957. She ended up being incarcerated by the Communist Party regime, during which time she used her own blood to write hundreds of pages of criticism of communist dictator Mao Zedong, which were smuggled out of prison. The regime had her executed in 1968.